10/09/2006
Source: Gulf Times

The human toll in Ivory Coast’s toxic waste scandal rose sharply from 1,500 to more than 5,000 people contaminated by open-air dumping sites in Abidjan, the Health Ministry said.

Three people, all children, have also died from the poisoning. “We have counted more than 5,000 people in health centres for problems linked to the toxic poisoning,” said Ministry spokesman Simeon N’Da. “The number of deaths remains unchanged at three,” he added.

Ivory Coast’s entire cabinet resigned over the poisoning scandal - which triggered angry protests - and an Inter-Ministerial Committee was set up to handle the crisis. Six French waste disposal experts have arrived in Ivory Coast to help the administration, which has announced an emergency plan to neutralise toxic fumes emanating from the waste. Ivory Coast Prime Minister Charles Konan Banny, who has been asked to form a new government, has accused his disgraced administration of “negligence” and promised to punish those responsible.

The toxic material was dumped in August by a Panama-registered ship on to about 10 open-air sites in the commercial capital Abidjan, a city of 4 million people. Environmental pressure group Greenpeace said it comprised of 400 tonnes of oil refining waste rich in organic matter and poisonous elements. The latter include hydrogen sulphide and organochloride, which can cause nausea, rashes, fainting, diarrhoea and headaches.

The Greek company that owns the vessel, Prime Marine Management, confirmed the waste had been discharged, but said the action was lawful. The ship was chartered by a Netherlands-based company that says an Ivorian firm had been entrusted with handling the unloaded waste. The scandal has added to the woes of this West African state, where UN-brokered peace process has tried to end four years of political crisis touched off by a failed coup against President Laurent Ggabgo in 2002 that effectively split the country in two.

Banny toured one of the waste dumps with French Junior Aid Minister Brigitte Girardin. Both wore gas masks to protect themselves from the noxious fumes emanating from the black, oily sludge, which has now been closed off by a security fence. Girardin denounced the dumping as “criminal and unacceptable”, after arriving in Brazzaville for separate talks with officials there. The sludge had contaminated nearby streams and pools and burnt the grass. But locals continued to grow tomatoes nearby, telling reporters they are now used to a smell described by one resident as “like gas mixed with garlic”.